The Path of Purity

WELCOME:

Nov 2 report

THIS WEDNESDAY we will be packing shoe boxes. If you are going to donate towards this, please have everything here by Wednesday.

We are going to have our Thanksgiving Meal Nov 19th. Jessica is going to prepare us a turkey and Jim is going to make a ham. Please come and enjoy this time of fellowship with us.

SCRIPTURE READING:

Psalm 96:1–13 “Sing to the Lord a new song; Sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless His name; Proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day. Tell of His glory among the nations, His wonderful deeds among all the peoples. For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols, But the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before Him, Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.”

LET US STAND AND WORSHIP!

“The Goodness of God”

Words and Music by Hillsong’

PRAYER OF PRAISE FOR WHO GOD IS

Lord, thank you for your constancy. For never turning Your back on us, for never getting frustrated with us, for forgiving our sins, for allowing us to be part of Your plan. We ask that You would look down upon this gathering of people and fill our hearts with great joy today as we focus on You. Amen!

“What a beautiful Name”

Words and Music by Hillsong

“What a beautiful Name”

Words and Music by Hillsong

PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION TO OPEN OUR HEARTS

Lord, give us ears to hear Your voice and eyes to see Your glory. Would you this morning illuminate Your Word and make it known to us? Help us no to make application to others peoples’ lives, but to apply every Word to our own lives. Amen

SERMON

INTRODUCTION:

We are going to be back in Psalms today, and in the longest Psalm of the Psalter: Psalm 119. We could preach an entire series on this one Psalm because it has 176 verses and the entire Psalm is about the power of value of the Word of God.

In verse 9, the psalmist says, “How can a young man keep his way pure?”

And we may be tempted to think by that question, well this sermon will only apply to the young people in the church. Those who are just starting out, who are naive, who are still needing to figure out how to live a righteous life.

But the truth is, as you walk with the Lord, your decisions are not going to become easier but more difficult.

As you grow, live on your own, get into a pattern of every day life things are going to show up in your life that will require more wisdom than when you were a youth, that will require more discernment than whether or not go to that party or date that person, more understanding about the Christian life.

This kind of “purity” is not just speaking about sexual purity, though that is certainly included. It is talking about ALL moral issues in life.

How we sin with our mouths. What we say.

How we sin with our hands. What we do.

How we sin with our hearts. What we think about.

So this is a question that we must ALL be asking ourselves: How can I keep myself from falling into sin that is so prevalent all around me? How can I keep my heart, my mind, and my hands clean before God?

And some people may also reject this question and say, well God doesn’t expect you to live this holy, Christian life! In fact that is a very popular opinion in the cultural church today. Well yes God wants you to be holy, but thats why Jesus died for us! God knows you sin, just relax and don’t worry about it so much! God wants you to be happy!

There was a movement about a year ago that was called, “He gets us” which was quite controversial because it really only focused on the human side of Jesus, not His deity, not His holiness….but His struggles, and his stress, and that he is OK with sin because hey He lived too and He gets us.

WHAT GOD WANTS FOR OUR LIVES IS TO BE SET APART FROM THIS SINFUL WORLD IN WHICH WE LIVE BY LIVING RIGHTEOUSLY!

⇒ “For this is the will of God, your sanctification” (holiness)

⇒ “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again?”

⇒ “but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

⇒ “He who pursues righteousness and loyalty Finds life, righteousness and honor.”

⇒ “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling;”

I could go on and on, but we get the point. God desires us to STRIVE to LIVE a life that look like the life and character of Jesus.

So back to our initial question: How can a young man keep his way pure? And he answers himself in the very next line: “By keeping it according to Your Word”

This man has learned that the pathway to purity is discovered by keeping and obeying the truths and principles in Scripture

The Bible is not just a book that tells us how to be blessed, nor is it a book that just tells us who God is, but a book shows us how to live PURE LIVES.

He says, “by keeping it according to Your Word”

That word “keep” means “to watch over” or “to guard”

He is saying that the Word of God is like a guard that watches over our life. As we walk through this world, as we walk down the path that God has laid before us, the teachings and principles and stories and proverbs and Psalms will keep us on the path of godliness.

And our call is to take this moral guide for us and hold it up next to every decision, every step, every pathway in life that we come to and ask ourselves what does the Bible say about this?

How many of God’s tests would we pass with flying colors if we just practiced this?

How many painful moments would we avoid if we did this?

How many years have we give to the locusts and have been eaten away wasted because we simply ignored what God had to say about the direction we chose to walk down?

PRINCIPLE: THE PURE PATHWAY IS NEVER THE WRONG PATH!

You will never go wrong by obeying the Bible!

You will never have a better more meaningful life then when you keep your life according to the Word!

You will never find more joy, more satisfaction, more peace, more hope, more closeness to Jesus than when you keep your lifer according to His Word!

I’m going give you four principles today that will help us keep our our lives according to the Word: And they are not suggestions! These are not things for the super godly people. These are not things for the youth. These are for all of us no matter how long we have walked with Jesus and how well we know the Bible.

#1) WE MUST HAVE A FULLY DEVOTED HEART TO GOD!

Psalm 119:10 NASB95

With all my heart I have sought You; Do not let me wander from Your commandments.

“With ALL MY HEART or with my WHOLE-HEART (as some translations have it) I have sought You”

Do you know what God wants of us first? He wants is all of you! The call to Christianity is NOT to give God part of our life, or even most of our life, but He requires ALL OF OUR LIFE!

He wants to be the One that you seek to please while you’re at work, He wants to be the One who you pursue when you are at home, He wants to be the One you seek to please at school, He wants to be the One you seek to please in your relationships, He wants to be the One you seek to please in your private life….. GOD WANTS A WHOLE HEARTED DEVOTION TO HIM!

A whole hearted devotion has no reservations.

⇒ It does not come to the Word of God and look at the options to see whether or not they are worth obeying.

⇒ It does not come to the Lord and draw a line and say I will go this far, but thats it, I’m not crossing that line and you can take it or leave it!

⇒ It does not hold the commands of God in one hand and the pleasures of the world in the other hand trying to give allegiance to them both

⇒ To be whole-hearted is to have already made up our mind that we will obey God and seek God above everything else REGARDLESS what situation we find ourselves in.

As Charles Stanley used to say, “Obey God and leave the consequences up to Him”

Here’s the thing about God, if He can’t have our whole heart, He’ll have none of it. God will not settle for second place, nor will He settle for a part-time devotion, nor will He settle for anything less than EVERYTHING. Its all or nothing with God

Jesus said, Matthew 22:37 “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’”

Matthew 12:30 ““He who is not with Me is against Me”

On the other hand, Satan will be happy to settle for just a little part of your life….because he knows if he can get a little, then he will divide your heart and he will eventually get it all.

So he’ll tempt us with some sort of sin, some kind of immoral decision that we know is wrong but it looks so good to the flesh and try to draw us away with it. And these are the easy ones to know right from wrong.

But they get much harder when there is nothing wrong with either decision, but one of them if your will and one of them is God’s will. Those are the one’s that really define where our heart is.

When the Lord called me to start this church plant, right in the middle of COVID, it was a godly thing to do!

And you would not believe the amount of opportunities that came to me during that time to pastor elsewhere.

There was an opportunity in North Carolina

There was an opportunity in southern Tenn

There was an opportunity here in Hopkinsville

There was an opportunity around Owensboro

I put in an resume to a church in MO who contacted me as one of their candidates

And let me not forget that to go to an established church with a paycheck, and a building, and members, and leaders is much more appealing than selling all my woodworking tools and preaching to 10 in my woodshop!

I remember telling Ashley, all of these are not God’s will! And none of them are bad things!

God’s calling was to one

Sometimes hearts are divided not by ethical issue, but because we simply reject God’s path for us.

James 4:17 “Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.”

The second part of this verse says this: “Do not let me wander from Your commandments”

What this Psalmist recognizes is that his ability to obey God and live a pure life cannot be done on his own!

He’ll never make it. The enemy will tempt Him and fool Him and draw Him away.

He’ll never defeat all the temptations on his own! What he needs is a helping hand from God.

And do you know who God helps?

Those who are are wholeheartedly commited to Him.

⇒ See, you don’t have to be the most disciplined person in the world

⇒ You don’t have to be the smartest person in the world understanding every detail of the Bible

⇒ You don’t have to be a part of a big church or be ministry leader

⇒ All you have to do is be whole-heartedly committed to God, and He will keep you from wandering from His commands.

And if you wander off the right path God will pick you up and put you back on His path!

If God has your whole heart, you are in good hands!

#2) WE MUST TREASURE THE WORD OF GOD

Psalm 119:11 NASB95

Your word I have treasured in my heart, That I may not sin against You.

To treasure God’s Word means that we value it like treasure

Job 23:12 “I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.”

God’s Word was more essential to Job than the very food that sustained his physical life.

He rightly understood what Jesus meant when He said: “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’ 

When we treasure things, we value them greatly! To treasure something means to store it up for safe keeping.

We have a gun safe in our bedroom, and it is pretty good sized. And we put all our treasures in there: coins, collectables, guns, things that we want to protect.

Lately it has become full of chips and snacks! Why? Because we have to protect them things so at night when Ashley wants to get a piece of chocolate she knows it will be there when she’s ready for it.

This is what the Psalmist is saying about the Word of God. First that it has great value, and because it has great value he treasures it in his heart so it will be available to him at all times.

How do you get the Word in your heart!?

Read it daily and memorize it!

Thats what this Psalmist did!

How do I know that?

(v 13) “With my lips I have told ALL the ordinances of Your mouth”

(v 16) “I shall not forget Your word”

You cannot recite or forget something something unless you have committed it to memory!

Make it a practice in your every day life to read the Bible and memorize the truths that God shows you. Write them down if you have to. Think about them, mediate on them. Immerse yourself in them and you will memorize them

And some may be saying, you’re asking a little much there aren’t you!? I mean what is this fourth grade math? Ive got a busy life! I run 12-14 hours a day!

If you treasure the Word, you’ll love to memorize the Word! If you know the value of God’s word, it will be the highlight of your day!

Why does the psalmist say he treasures the God’s Word? “That I may not sin against You”

Biblical truth doesn’t do us very much good if we have to go and dig through it to find direction on how we are to respond in every situation we find ourselves in.

Temptation to sin often catches us when we are not expecting it. And almost always, we are called to respond at that very moment and there is no time to reference the Bible.

But when we treasure the Word, and store it up in our hearts, one after another committing them to memory…. and the that temptation to sin against God confronts us, the Holy Spirit will reach down in your treasury bring those verses to mind and guard your way AND KEEP YOUR PATH PURE!

3) WE MUST HAVE A TEACHABLE SPIRIT

Psalm 119:12 NASB95

Blessed are You, O Lord; Teach me Your statutes.

There is a difference in knowing what the Bible says, and understanding how to use it in our lives.

It’s not enough to simply read the Bible, or even memorize the Bible, if we do not heed the implications of Scripture and what they are calling us to do!

There are many people who read the Bible and it makes no real lasting difference in their life. Or they come into a service on Sunday morning and hear the Word of God preached, and these truths in Scripture are declared and they make no impact in their lives!

But to others who come in to the same service, or read the same chapter of the Bible are convicted, and moved, or encouraged, and leave changed!

What’s the difference?

The difference is one person has a soft heart that is pliable and teachable and God is working on them, and the other person’s heart is hard and they believe they have it all figured out and not even God Himself could teach them anything

You know what we ought to do.

We ought to do the same way the Psalmist did, HE ASKED GOD TO TEACH HIM.

Before we ever open up the Word, before we step into a sanctuary to hear the Word preached, before we should be saying, “Blessed are You, O Lord, teach Me Your statutes!”

What do you want me to learn from You today? Please fill Me with Your knowledge and wisdom!

Do I have sin in my life!? SHOW ME SO I CAN REPENT OF IT!

Have I wandered?! Show me, teach me so I can get back on Your path!

Oh God what lesson do I need to learn today!?

That is just the kind of heart God teaches. He comes open tot he Lord willing tom accept and receive anything God has for Him

(v 13-14) “With my lips I have told of All the ordinances of Your mouth. I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies, As much as in all riches.

Do you know what t Psalmist has learned here? He has learned that the Word of God is greater than all riches! He has discovered that this great treasure that he has come to know and keep his life ion the path of purity is worthy of more praise than all the money in the world.

Because he has learned that the Word of God can do for him what money cannot do.

The Bible has the power to transform our character and give us a clean pure heart….money cannot do that

The Bible has the ability to keep us right dead smack in the middle of God’s will all of our days…money can’t do that

The Bible can give you wisdom to live the most satisfying and fulfilling life possible….money cannot do that.

The Bible can open our eyes to see and behold the Son of God who died for the sins of the world who gives us eternal life….money cannot do that.

If we could just learned that lesson, it would radically change the church

4) WE MUST HAVE AN UNWAVERING FUTURE COMMITMENT TO THE WORD

I’ll close with this

(v 15-16) “I will meditate on Your precepts And regard Your ways. I shall delight in Your statutes; I shall not forget Your word.”

I will mediate on Your precepts, I shall delight in Your statues, I shall not forget Your word!!

I love the ending of this Psalm. It began with these declarations of what he has done:

(v 10) He has sought God with his whole heart, (v 11) He has treasured God’s Word in his heart, (v 13) he has told of All the ordinances of God with his lips, (v 14) he has rejoiced in the way of His testimonies

And then he changes to this future commitment: (v 15) “I will mediate on Your precepts and regard Your ways”, (v 16) “I shall delight in Your statues, I shall not forget Your word!!”

This is the call to us today. Not to disregard the first three points, but to say to the Lord these things I will do from here on out until the day that I die.

If we will do this, we will walk the path of purity. We will be salt and light. We will be children of the Light!

And maybe you are here today, and you don’t know where to start. And you have not kept your way pure, You have not been whole-heartedly committed to the Lord….you rarely if ever even open the Word of God…

Then You must begin with Jesus

Come to Jesus

Come and give your life to Jesus

Walk away from all your sin, and place your faith in the Son of God!

Jesus said, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.”

~PRAYER~